But many of these stadium deals turned into sinkholes on the public coffers and economic research found that professional sports stadium...
But many of these stadium deals turned into sinkholes on the public coffersand economic research found that professional sports stadiums rarely have a significant impact on overall economic growth.
“The public and lawmakers should both be given the information and the time to fully assess this,” said Patrick Orecki, director of state studies at the Citizen Budget Commission, a budget watchdog.
In recent years, many New York sports teams, from the Yankees to the Mets, have largely paid for their own stadiums, although many venues was built with public assistance in the form of free land, tax breaks and infrastructure improvements in the surrounding area.
Madison Square Garden in Manhattan has enjoyed a property tax exemption since 1982, while Brooklyn’s Barclays Center has received $260.3 million in state and city funding, as well as tax exemptions land. The Yankees and Mets baseball fields have received tax breaks and tax-free bonds, but teams are paying off the bonds with revenue from their stadiums.
If taxpayers ended up being responsible for about $1 billion for a new Bills Stadium, that would be more than 70% of estimated construction costs, consistent with recent stadium deals in smaller NFL markets, according to an analysis by The Buffalo News. But the amount of the subsidy stay on the high endboth in the state and across the country.
In the last two NFL stadium contracts, public funding was less important. When the Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, the Rams owner fully paid for the team’s new stadium in Inglewood, California. But when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas from Oakland, Calif., in 2020 for a billion stadium, Clark County, Nevada paid $750 million in bonds secured by hotel revenue.
While the terms of funding a deal with Bills remain unclear, some have argued that a large state subsidy is needed because Buffalo is one of the NFL’s smallest markets, meaning it lacks the collection of big corporate sponsors who pay top dollar for stadium naming rights, luxury boxes and season tickets.
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